Tuesday 29 October 2013

Day 49 (Tuesday 29 October): Seminar Series kickoff

The Mater Hospital in North Sydney, where I am getting my treatment, run a 6 week "Seminar Series" on early breast cancer held on Tuesday mornings. The third one of this year started today, and I was there. I thought I should go to see if I could learn anything useful and to see what it would be like to meet others who are currently on similar journeys.

I arrived at the The Poche Centre, centre where my surgeon and oncologist's offices are, and made my way to the conference room. I was greeted by the Cancer Support Officer and saw Claire, the Breastcare nurse. The session started with an overview of support resources.  The clinical psychologist who was there talked about the ways in which she and her team can help. There were 2 cancer survivors who'd volunteered their time to tell us all their stories and provide support. I immediately identified with Gill, who talked about how she approached her treatment with a project management plan and diarised every appointment. I was disappointed when she said that it definitely didn't go according to plan for much of the time.

There were about 20 of us there who were at all different points of post-diagnosis acceptance and treatment. The age range was 28 to mid-60s. Everyone had a similar but different story, and everyone seemed to be coping differently. I learned some practical things like: the scalp cooling is painful and you still lose about 50% of your hair, getting a "port" makes the IV process much easier if finding a vein gets tough and a wig can look fabulous. I found some comfort in knowing that others are going though a similar experience, but I did feel a bit like I did when I was pregnant that each of us have our own journeys. I sense these will be useful sessions as part of the process but it made me remember that this cancer is only part of who I am.

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